Well, he's not wrong, is Ol' Charlie

The politicians are not entirely to blame. Too many of our fellow citizens have decided that the best preventative measure against the pandemic is to act like jackasses. https://t.co/sIpO6JsvSp

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 25, 2020

Is he?

“Honestly the politicization of science is one of our incredible societal downfalls. Science should not be politics,” Dr. Hilary Fairbrother, a Houston emergency medicine physician, told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. The Lone Star state is in the throes of a record number of cases that threatens to overwhelm health systems in major cities like Dallas and Houston.

Fairbrother said the debate has become a Hobson’s choice that lacks nuance, between those who want to “close down the entire world for at least 3 years until there is no coronavirus left in any corner of the planet,” and others who are unconcerned about rising casualties.

“There’s no middle ground, there’s no common sense or application of good science,” she added. “I beg people to start listening to scientists, and stop listening to politicians on all things coronavirus.”

.....

Many of the states now on the outbreak’s front lines are struggling to balance individual rights with the mandates of a public health crisis, and falling short of the mark. Citizens, as well as investors, are banking on the idea that the latest surge of infections won’t lead to a renewal of restrictive stay-at-home orders that crushed the global economy.

“I’m not a constitutional scholar but this is what happens when you try and use federalism at the science level,” said Dr. Murtaza Akhter, an assistant professor in the University of Arizona’s Department of Emergency Medicine. The Grand Canyon State has nearly 60,000 cases and around 1500 deaths, and has been the center of a raucous public debate over mask-wearing in public.

“The fact that people are still saying ‘this is America, do what you want’ that’s fine from a legal or constitutional perspective, but from a public health and science perspective that’s a terrible idea,” Akhter said. 

Of course, politicians do have some responsibility still:

“The biggest concern is that we’re going to lose a handle on the situation,” Cedric Dark, an assistant professor at Texas’ Baylor College of Medicine, told Yahoo Finance.  He was critical of Abbott’s decision to reopen the economy in May, despite an earlier suggestion that the state could corral a COVID-19 surge.

After the reopening, “those cases started going up, not only linearly but exponentially,” Dark said.

“Unless we battle it back now, we’re going to be forced to shut everything down [again]...I think people need to realize it. We need to dial it back and go back to where we were in Phase 1,” the physician added.

Or we can follow Trump's example, and just pretend it's not there.

Abbott wants every kid back in school in mid-August.  That's going to be interesting.